What’s Important to Know About NJ This Week -01/27/2024

Affordable Housing Back on the Radar, Report on Flood Resilience, Telehealth Access Lands in NJ Supreme Court and Guidelines on Artificial Intelligence issued for NJ Attorneys

Affordable Housing Overhaul Advances

NJ Monitor

Another bill would allow affordable housing projects backed by state or local affordable housing trust funds to make payments in lieu of taxes. That bill drew some concern from one of the committee’s members, who said the bill should be amended to send PILOT funds to municipalities and school districts instead of to municipalities and counties.

“Our school districts are receiving no money under these PILOTs, and as we continue to build and have more of these family units coming in, there becomes a greater disparity, particularly in the suburban areas where a supermajority of the property taxes are attributable to schools,” said Schepisi, who abstained. “We need to try to make sure that we don’t have a tipping point where it becomes unmanageable.”  Read More

 

Report on Flood Resilient Landscapes

NJ Spotlight

The 94-page report, published last month, describes how local officials can build flood resiliency through measures such as rain gardens, permeable pavement, living shorelines and bioswales — open channels planted with a variety of vegetation that is designed to absorb floodwaters. The report was jointly written with the School of Design at South Dakota State University.

“I view it as a bit of a how-to, a bit of an empowering tool, and then a bit of a toolkit,” said Brooke Maslo, a Rutgers professor of ecology who leads the project, during a visit to the Sayreville site. “The reality is that we are not coming up with innovative tools; we are bringing it all together, and we’re putting it in a format that is sequential and digestible.”  Read More

 

Lawsuit Claiming NJ Laws Restrict Telehealth Access Filed

Patch

The lawsuit — filed in U.S. District Court by attorneys for Dr. Shannon MacDonald, a radiation oncologist at Boston’s Mass General Cancer Center — claims the Garden State’s current telehealth laws requiring out-of-state doctors to become licensed in New Jersey forces residents to either forego treatment or travel out of state to receive care.

The lawsuit claims New Jersey’s current law violates the U.S. Constitution as well as a person’s right to direct their medical care by “erecting high barriers” for those seeking treatment out of state.  Read More

NJ Supreme Court Issues AI Guidelines for Attorneys

njbiz.com

Chaired by Administrator Director of the Courts Glenn Grant, the 31-member group was tasked in September 2023 with evaluating potential policies and practices in numerous areas. That included the appropriate use – and possible limitations – of AI in legal contexts, disclosure of the technology’s usage in court submissions and testimony, as well as guidance for self-represented litigants and other court users. Read More

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State Representatives for Berkeley Heights Residents

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